CHAPTER 11

Program Management Community of Practice

A program manager needs to understand the organizational environment as it defines the program management structure and sculpts the program manager role. A program manager should influence business-focused program management structure as it empowers a business-focused program manager role. One of the venues that a program manager can utilize is a program management community of practice (PgMCoP). A community of practice can serve as a forum for program management's current state analysis, program process improvement initiative discussions, and best practice and knowledge sharing. This chapter defines the community of practice's value to organizations and program managers, and describes its foundation, structure, and operations.

The chapter covers the following key aspects:

• Program management community of practice value; and
• Foundation, benefits, structure, and operational activities.

Program Management Community of Practice Value

A program management community of practice (PgMCoP) is a forum that allows program managers to influence business program management structure, sculpt the program manager role, help standardize program management definitions, and share knowledge and best practices.

The community of practice can be either internal within the organization or external through networking sites like LinkedIn or professional associations like PMI. Even though as of January 2016, PMI members did not have local chapters for program management practitioners founded through PMI, this opportunity can be explored in the future.

The internal community of practice will allow program managers to realize the full spectrum of benefits within an organization, starting with influencing a business-focused program management structure. The external community of practice will create a platform for collecting knowledge and best practices that can be used to standardize and promote program management.

Foundation, Benefits, Structure, and Operational Activities of the Program Management Community of Practice

Foundation

Any program manager can find a program management community of practice. Organizations will likely support community of practice formation as they increase organizational performance in the following four areas:

• Help accelerate the on-boarding and learning of new program managers;
• Allow for responding more rapidly to customer needs and inquiries;
• Reduce rework and prevent “reinvention of the wheel”; and
• Spawn new ideas for products and services.¹

A program manager can start the process of finding the program management community of practice by preparing and submitting a proposal to executives. The proposal identifies the need for the community of practice and justifies its foundation within the organization by listing future benefits. The proposal includes the community of practice structure, identifies program managers who will participate in it, defines lead and participant roles and responsibilities, and delineates executive oversight. The proposal outlines community of practice operations, including meetings cadence, frequency, and format of the updates to the executive sponsors.

Various executives can be involved in review and approval of the proposal for the program management community of practice, including portfolio managers, program management office directors, and vice presidents of the functional areas that employ program managers. Once the executives review and approve the proposal, they appoint a sponsor, who will provide executive oversight and ensure community of practice organizational alignment.

Once approval is received, a community of practice lead conducts a kick-off meeting that includes program managers participating in the community of practice and an executive sponsor. A community of practice lead presents a community of practice structure, roles and responsibilities, and meeting cadence. Participants provide feedback that will help finalize the program management community of practice structure and meetings cadence. During the meeting, the lead obtains buy-in from the participants for a community of practice launch. A program manager schedules regular meetings and proceeds with the community of practice launch.

Benefits

It is important to fully define benefits that can be realized through the program management community of practice, as it confirms a need for the community of practice, justifies its formation to senior executives, motivates participants to take part in it, defines the community of practice goals, and informs the activity plan. In this section, we will introduce structural characteristics of the community of practice as it provides the framework for benefits definition. We will also examine benefits that a program management community of practice provides.

A community of practice provides benefits to three groups: participants, community, and organization. For the participants, the community of practice creates a supportive environment that promotes learning and professional development. It allows for interacting with professional peers, subject matter experts, and senior leadership far beyond the departmental walls. In more detail, benefits to the participants include:

• Broadening organizational awareness and understanding different roles within the organization;
• Expanding networks within the organization;
• Increasing recognition and enhancing professional reputation;
• Enhancing professional development and learning;
• Improving interaction with professional peers across the organization; and
• Increasing access to subject matter experts and senior leadership.

The community has the power to influence organizational decisions. It is also a platform for knowledge sharing and idea generation. Community benefits are generated from the benefits that the participants accumulate together, including:

• Power to influence organizational structure and decisions;
• Amplified idea generation; and
• A platform for knowledge sharing.

Organizations realize multiple benefits through communities of practice. The most tangible benefit to an organization is a business outcome, as the community of practice's benefits directly contribute to successful projects, process improvements, new businesses, and innovations. Organizational benefits include:

• Improved processes timing and efficiency;
• Improved delivery effectiveness; and
• Increased new businesses and innovations.

The structural characteristics of any community of practice are redefined to three domains: knowledge, a notion of community, and practice:

• A domain of knowledge creates common ground, inspires members to participate, guides their learning, and gives meaning to their actions.
• The notion of a community creates the social fabric for that learning. A strong community fosters interactions and encourages a willingness to share ideas.
• While the domain provides the general area of interest for the community, the practice is the specific focus around which the community develops, shares, and maintains its core of knowledge.²

Using the community of practice's structural characteristic, we will examine program management community of practice benefits for participants, communities, and organizations, as presented in Table 11-1.

A program manager lead and program manager participants define the program management community of practice benefits. An executive sponsor approves benefits, ensuring overall organizational alignment.

Based on identified benefits, a program manager lead and program manager participants set program management community of practice goals and create an annual activity plan. The plan includes activities to be worked on and topics to be discussed during the year. For example, the program management community of practice sets an annual goal to standardize program governance structure across multiple programs. To achieve this goal, the activity plan will include a dialogue from each program manager to discuss their program governance structure, compare and contrast findings, identify gaps, and implement best practices. The activity plan is broken down into tasks that become topics for the program management community of practice meetings and may include:

• Identifying best practices;
• Advocating for a new system; and
• Identifying the need for an infrastructure enhancement.

The program management community of practice may use a template to collect findings through a dialogue with the program managers. The findings are analyzed to identify common program practices and gaps. Using findings, program managers make recommendations. Once approved, recommendations are implemented, improving program management practice.

Costs

Benefits generation is always associated with costs. For a community of practice, it may be difficult to quantify all costs and tie them back to the benefits, as there is a time gap between incurred costs and realized benefits. The community of practice costs may include the cost of participants’ time, practice promotional materials, and technology.

The cost of participants’ time can be quantified using hourly rates multiplied by the number of hours. Publishing costs can quantify the cost of promotional materials (e.g., cost to publish flyers that announce the community of practice events, and brochures that contain findings). The cost of technology can be quantified using hourly equipment cost. The community of practice meetings can be either in person or virtual. For an in-person meeting, technology cost can be a projector cost. For a virtual meeting, technology cost can be a video conference cost.

Structure

A program management community of practice should include the following roles (see Figure 11-1):

• Program sponsor, an executive who provides executive oversight and ensures organizational alignment;

  

• Program manager lead, a program manager who leads the community of practice during a defined period; and
• Program manager participants, program managers who participate in the community of practice work.

As the community of practice is a volunteer organization where participants frequently deal with conflicting priorities, it is important to ensure participation utilizing these key steps:

• Clearly define the community of practice purpose, and ensure it accounts for all participants’ needs;
• Justify participation by quantifying benefits; and
• Ensure portfolio manager and program management office director support.

Program manager participants can ensure community of practice success and can gain the most benefits out of participating in it by actively displaying the following three competencies:

• Social presence includes communicating with others in the community of practice. Lack of social presence may create barriers that inhibit individuals from engaging in knowledge exchange. Some of the reasons for these barriers include egos and personal attacks.
• Motivation to share knowledge is critical to the success of communities of practice. Studies show that members are motivated to become active participants in a community of practice when they view knowledge as meant for the public good, a moral obligation, and as a community interest. Members of a community of practice can also be motivated to participate by using methods such as tangible returns (promotion, raises, or bonuses), intangible returns (reputation, self-esteem), and community interest (exchange of practice-related knowledge, interaction).
• Collaboration is essential to ensuring that the community of practice thrives.³

What makes a community of practice succeed depends on the purpose and objective of the community as well as the interests and resources of the members of that community. Once the community of practice is operational, a program manager lead can take various actions to ensure its ongoing success, including:

• Designing the community to evolve naturally. As the nature of the community of practice is dynamic, the interests, goals, and members are subject to change. Community of practice forums should be designed to support shifts in focus.
• Creating opportunities for open dialogue with inside and outside perspectives. While the members and their knowledge are the community of practice's most valuable resource, it is also beneficial to look outside of the community of practice to understand the different possibilities for achieving their learning goals.
• Welcoming and allowing different levels of participation:
  • The core group, who participates intensely in the community through discussions and projects. This group typically takes on leadership roles in guiding the group.
  • The active group, who attends and participates regularly, but not to the level of the leaders.
  • The peripheral group, who, while they are passive participants in the community, still learn from their level of involvement. The third group typically represents the majority of the community.
• Developing both public and private community spaces. While community of practices typically operate in public spaces where all members share, discuss, and explore ideas, they should also offer private exchanges. Different members of the community of practice could coordinate relationships among members and resources in an individualized approach based on specific needs.
• Focusing on the value of the community. The community of practice should create opportunities for participants to explicitly discuss the value and productivity of their participation in the group.
• Combining familiarity and excitement. The community of practices should offer expected learning opportunities as part of their structure, and opportunities for members to shape their learning experience together by brainstorming and examining the conventional and radical wisdom related to their topic.
• Finding and nurturing a regular rhythm for the community. The community of practice should coordinate a thriving cycle of activities and events that allow for the members to regularly meet, reflect, and evolve. The rhythm, or pace, should maintain an anticipated level of engagement to sustain the vibrancy of the community, yet not be so fast-paced that it becomes unwieldy and overwhelming in its intensity.⁴

As mentioned above, focus on the value of the community of practice is highly important. That is why one of the first community of practice meetings should include goal setting. For the first year, short-term goals may include developing the organizational structure and ensuring 80% meeting attendance. Long-term goals may include influencing program management business structure in three years and providing training to ensure business program manager role transition.

To ensure outside perspectives, create new learning opportunities, and maintain excitement, the program manager lead, along with the executive sponsor, invites guest speakers. Among guest speakers may be industry experts; government officials; organizational, national, and regional program management executives; and personnel from various departments.

To maintain an anticipated level of engagement, the community of practice should have a set structure, including meetings cadence, as will be described in the next section.

Operational Activities

At the start of the community of practice, a program manager lead should set up the operational structure, including:

• Agreeing upon program manager lead duration of service;
• Scheduling community of practice meetings; and
• Scheduling updates with the executive sponsor.

Each year, the program management community of practice operations should start with the goal setting. The goals should include measures of successful completion. Examples of measures may include meeting attendance and goals completed to date. A program manager lead gains executive sponsor goal approval. And a program manager lead and the executive sponsor set up regular updates and agree upon update format.

A program manager lead sets up and maintains a document storage depository (e.g., a SharePoint site or a shared drive) and stores all program management community of practice artifacts, including meeting minutes, presentations, analyses, and more.

¹ Community of practice. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice

² Community of practice. (n. d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice

³ Community of practice. (n. d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice

⁴ Community of practice. (n. d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice